It has almost been nine months since the last time I wrote. I can’t really believe that this blog fell to the wayside so easily… I could’ve made a baby in the same amount of time.

I last wrote about being back in Fredericton and Jeff being with me and not in Regina; that seems like a past era of my life now. Since going back to Fredericton, Jeff and I lived happily while I finished my degree (in chemical engineering for those not that close to me) and Jeff worked through the days so that he didn’t go crazy trying to figure out what to do during the day. That problem may have reared its ugly head again though, more on that later.

Christmas quickly came and with my very meagre exam schedule I had a lot of time off! Jeff drove to Ontario to be with his family for as much time as he could over the break. After I wrote my exams I flew out there to meet them as well! We spent a few weeks there and then drove home to Charlottetown to spend Christmas with my family too. It was a big step in our relationship for Jeff to be away from his family for Christmas and with mine, and as far as things on my side go, spending the break at my house and meeting all of my family. All in all it was a great vacation! There were gifts given, food eaten, fights had, resolutions found, and wine drank. I couldn’t have asked for a whole lot more.

A quick breakdown I know, but that sums it up pretty well I think! I guess at some point during the break was our anniversary as well. But we don’t really know the date and it’s an anniversary of time spent dating so it’s not that crucial yet anyway right?

After Christmas I continued my studies and Jeff kept working. I was focussing most of my efforts on my Plant Design course which involves the complete design of a chemical plant for a client. It’s a full year course (I can’t remember if I’ve mentioned it here before or not) in which you’re grouped into teams and each team has a client for whom they have to take their idea, technology, or potential new method and design a facility to make it work! Our team designed a new form of biodiesel production plant using a new technology from an Atlantic Canadian company. In a nutshell we took a by-product that normally gets created and used the technology to shift it into its plasma state and then pyrolyzed it to produce heat and energy to be reused in the overall process!
The whole course was a royal pain in the ass, took up all of my time, and usually led us into dead ends and unknown territory; but hey! I’m told that that’s the point. I will admit that I learned a LOT from it.

BioDiesel Fuel

My plant design group at the Iron Ring Ceremony

Oh yeah! I got my iron ring too.. probably should’ve mentioned that.

Iron Ring!

Fast forwarding again, at the end of the year Jeff went back to Ontario alone because, again, I had an exam to write, but mostly because his niece was due to be born! So I went home for a bit, went back to Fredericton, wrote my exam, and flew out afterwards (same as at Christmas time).
I can’t get enough of AJ (Jeff’s nephew, in case you’ve forgotten), he just turned 3 and he’s the absolute best. On top of that was the new baby that Jeff went out early to welcome to the world! Drew was born almost exactly when she was due and is so cute. She’s perfectly well behaved, already has a full head of hair, and has (though not until after we left Ontario) started smiling!

Colouring with my favourite little man

Drew!

I always have a great time seeing Jeff’s parents and going to Ontario to visit his family is always looked forward to. His brother and sister-in-law (AJ and Drew’s parents) are some of the kindest people I’ve met. I should probably consider myself lucky to have that sort of relationship with my boyfriend’s family, though to be honest all that I have to really compare it to is one bad example and the movies, so I don’t really know. Either way seeing Jeff’s family makes me happy every time.

We drove from Ontario to Fredericton, stopping in Edmundston to check out the apartment we’d just started renting (more on that in a bit as well). I graduated with a bachelor’s in chemical engineering with Jeff, my parents, and my grandmother all there cheering me on. I’m getting a little worked up now just thinking about how lucky I am to have had people like that smiling at me as I accomplished one of my life goals.

Parents and Mama.. we were all so photogenic that day….

After graduation, with the help of my parents and Jeff (my grandmother waited back in Fredericton) all of my belongings, as well as Jeff’s, were moved to Edmundston. Now the reason we’ve moved to Edmundston is because I’ve landed a job as a Process Engineer at Twin Rivers Paper in Madawaska, Maine which is only minutes from Edmundston, NB.

Since I’ve sort of started my ‘real’ life, live relatively far from home (a 7 hour drive), and need to cross the border every day I actually bought my first car! A bit scary, but it was a pretty good deal at 0% financing so I decided to go ahead and make my first big purchase! As it turns out, I couldn’t be much happier with my new Nissan!

My new car!

Jeff and I both just got new computers too actually. I was giving myself a graduation present, and since my old laptop was 5 years old I figured a new computer would probably be a good investment. I shopped around for a long time trying to find the right one and ended up with a new HP Pavilion dv6. Since I was giving myself a present and because I was starting a pretty good job soon I decided to go all out and get a really good computer rather than get an ok one and save a few dollars. Turns out it was on sale for a great price and Jeff got one too!

Now I’m here in Edmundston, working in Maine, living with Jeff.. I really can’t complain a whole lot. Having a friend or two my age at work wouldn’t be turned away, but if that’s the only issue then I can certainly live with it for some time. This is where Jeff going crazy trying to find something to do sort of comes back into play again. He doesn’t currently have work here in Edmundston and is going a little nuts trying to find things to do during the day while I’m at work and neither of us know anyone in the city. Have any suggestions for activities?

That’s all for now I guess! I’ll update again soon. I have the time to do it now so I don’t have much of an excuse not to.
Hope you’re all great!

So last time I posted I was on my way to Forest to meet Jeff’s family, having stopped at Niagara Falls. I’ll now try to sum up the past month quickly, for your sake!

I already told you about getting to his parents’ house and meeting his mom right away. She gave me a hug right off the bat after I extended my hand. She shook it but then said I’m gonna give you a hug and pulled me in. I’ll spare you the detailed breakdown of the weeks I spent in Ontario just because there were a lot of days elapsed. Long story short is that everything went really well and his parents (seemed to) like me! Jeff’s nephew also now owns my heart.

Apple picking with the little man

One thing I SHOULD tell you all about is Cedar Point Park! Jeff, his mom, and I went there soon after arriving in Forest and spent two days. The park is in Ohio, so I won’t be surprised if you’ve never heard of it, I hadn’t either. When Jeff told me about it he was singing the park’s praises, so I looked it up and found out that it’s been rated the best amusement park in the world for the past 13 years!

We spent the entire first day on roller coasters. No filler rides or taking breaks in between! Just roller coasters. Amazing.
The second day Jeff’s mom didn’t come with us but Jeff and I went back and spent about half of the day in the water park attached and then went back and rode some of our favourite rides again.

A vital note is also my realization of just how addicted I am to garlic fingers.. ordering a pizza to our hotel room in New York and then again in Ohio without garlic fingers was so WEIRD and wrong. Dear The rest of the world, get garlic fingers. Sincerely, people who are doing it right.

My kryptonite

Some other highlights of my trip through Ontario included visiting friends in Toronto overnight and then more friends in London! It was really great to see some old friends again and some friends that I didn’t expect to get to see again anytime relatively soon. I was very happy!
P.s. this is the view (no zoom) from my friends’ balcony in Toronto!!

The only editing I did was adding a filter with Instagram!

On our way back from Toronto we stopped in London to see another friend of mine I used to proctor with. When I said goodbye to him last April I didn’t think I was going to get to see him again and it made me pretty upset. Thankfully I was able to see him again and I really hope it happens again! This is the beautiful view from his apartment in London! So pretty.

I wish I saw this every time I looked out my window

On the way back home we stopped overnight in Québec City so that we didn’t have to drive for 16 hours straight. If you haven’t been to that city, GO. It is SO pretty and the architecture is amazing. We also expected to be the victims of cold shoulders and disgruntled Quebecois because we aren’t french, but everyone we talked to either spoke English well or didn’t care at all! It was a really great pit stop and I suggest you spend some time there if you can!

Chateau Frontenac

Inside the Chateau, taken from… the 20th floor I think?

I’d like to live here for sure

Now, I’m back in Fredericton and after some plan changes so is Jeff! No more goodbyes 🙂
Life is really good right now and I can’t stop smiling. Everything’s going well and I feel like it’s a bit undeserved and I’m waiting for something to go wrong.. but here’s hoping that doesn’t happen!

I actually have an excuse as to why I haven’t updated in so long this time!

Jeff and I had to pack our lives up and move out of our apartment in Fredericton. What complicated this whole process? We had to be out of our subletted apartment on August 25th but I wasn’t allowed to move into my apartment for the next year until September 1st… whaddup homeless?! So I called the landlord and got a bit of an extension and we were allowed to stay until the 27th or August but we were still in a bit of a pickle as to what to do with our stuff.

Jeff had always planned on packing his stuff up permanently to take home with him since he’s going away for those six months of training but we still had to put my stuff somewhere.. including a bed..
Thankfully my roommate Sunny has a most wonderful girlfriend Shannon who offered her apartment for us to store our stuff including our bed in an extra bedroom.
Things have a way of working out sometimes don’t they!?

So HANYWAYS. We packed our apartment up, took our belongings to Shannon’s house, slept in her spare room for the night, and then headed to Ontario Saturday morning.

Not bad packing considering we’re gone for three weeks!

Our original plan was to drive all the way to Niagara Falls on Saturday, 14+ hours of driving, stopping for some food and to switch drivers. It turned out to be quite a trek though so we stopped in a city called Oriskany just outside of Utica, New York to sleep. On the drive out I remembered talking to my cousin about stopping at her place while we were on the road because she hadn’t met Jeff yet, so we ended up making two overnight stops on the journey rather than driving the whole way in one go as we had planned. That turned out to be a much better idea. We were better rested, not cranky, not sore from sitting in the car, and well fed!

So after stopping in NY, and just before stopping in Burlington, we actually went to Niagara Falls! It was so beautiful. Lots of tourists obviously, and there are lots of tourist traps, but the falls themselves were awesome. Jeff asked if I wanted to do the maid of the mist because he’s been on it before, and I told him I didn’t really care. I thought it’d be nice, but wouldn’t be disappointed if we didn’t.. I decided that if it was more than 30 dollars I wouldn’t do it, but otherwise we would. Turns out it only costs $16.50! Ridiculous right? So of course we did it.

Not bad for iPhone pictures eh?

Sexy Ponchos

Totally worth it. The feeling and sound of being right in the middle of the falls is amazing. It’s loud but quiet, it’s scary but calm… loved it. If you’re in Niagara and debating whether or not to ride the Maid, then definitely give it a shot. You’ll not regret it. We also ate at the Rainforest Cafe in Niagara. Pretty neat set up! A little more geared towards kids, but it was more fun than subway!

Rainforest Cafe

Might be a bit dark… this is how it looks inside

**Sidenote, when we left Burlington to head to Forrest we stopped at Ikea too; I’d never been to one before!

First Time!

When we did finally get to Jeff’s parents’ house in Ontario, we spent two nights here before going back to the states again! Lord have I had enough of the US of A. It is the WORST. So much obesity, stupidity, and SO much about God and Jesus from people who don’t even understand the religion and the history. GUHHHHH. If nothing else being there completely reaffirmed my devotion to atheism.

RIDICULOUS

On a lighter note, we went to Cedar Point Park in Ohio, rated the world’s best amusement park for the past 13 years! I know! I hadn’t even heard of it either! How can it be the world’s best if no one knows it exists right? After having spent two days there however, I can confirm that it IS the best. I had an AMAZING time there.

We left Ohio, did a little shopping in the states, bought some beer at the duty free of course, and came back to Forrest.

Since being in Forrest for this small amount of time we’ve played it pretty low-key. I met a lot of Jeff’s family, fell in love with his nephew (he’s 2), and caught up on our sleep. We have some plans to see some of his old friends and some of my friends in London/Toronto in the coming couple of weeks.. but I’m excited for being able to take it easy for a little while; I haven’t had a vacation in a long time.

I really thought I was going to get better at keeping you all updated.. many apologies.

Don’t tell anyone, but I usually write my blogs at work, but the past while I’ve been super busy basically refurbishing our entire lab. We had to sort through every chemical and decide whether or not we still needed or not and/or if it was expired. Then we scrubbed and swept and organized everything else. At first everyone was helping, but that last about a day. Then it was virtually all me. I’m SO tired of chemicals. I just finished organizing and alphabetizing our dry chemical cabinet and there are 320 some chemicals in there alone. Eff.
So no blog writing at work for me unfortunately.

My slight OCD might have had me secretly enjoying this

It’s been 9 days since I last posted and I MIGHT struggle to remember everything that happened since then. But one thing that comes to my mind pretty quickly is that it was my birthday! I turned 22 on Sunday and had a really great weekend celebrating it! Jeff and I decided to make the weekend a little more ‘us’ focused and slightly romantic since it was my birthday but also because it was Jeff’s last weekend in Fredericton. So Friday we just hung out at home, cleaned up a bit, watched some of our favourite shows, played some games etc. It was relaxed and very necessary after our long week of work.

Saturday we had an upbeat date and the two of us had some drinks and went out! What wasn’t so unfortunate at the time but what turned out to be unfortunate was the amount of alcohol that we decided to consume. We drank everything.
We each had a bottle of wine at home before we went out and split a 6 pack. Then when we got to the bar we had a great time dancing but also had about 5 more drinks of hard liquor at the bar. We met some friends there and went back to their place and they gave us another beer.
We drank too much. I knew we were drinking too much the whole time. Where was my discipline?

Consequently, Sunday was spent trying to heal. I was a wreck. I had to make myself sick in the morning in an attempt to feel better, my head was pounding… not fun at all. So my actual “birthday” was a bit of a write off but I had so much fun Saturday night that it really wasn’t an issue 🙂 Plus it was nice to just lay in bed with Jeff taking care of me.

Monday night a couple friends came to East Side’s for apps and drinks for a modest celebration. The apps were delicious as always and I got some really sweet gifts! If any of you gift givers are reading, I really appreciate your thought! I was smiling all night. However, please note that gifts are not and never will be expected! I’m not huge on birthday attention so if in the future you’re unsure about getting me a gift, you really don’t have to worry about it 🙂

A few other quick mentions of goings-on over the past week, Jeff and I spent one of the nicer afternoons after work at the park! We just brought some snacks, our books, and the iPod+speaker and read in the sun. We also MAY have played a sailor moon drinking game one night too. HILARIOUS. Leave a comment if you’d like me to explain the rules.

We had a skype date with Serena! She’s in Ireland.. err.. was in Ireland, she’s in England again now but she’s coming back to Freddy this weekend! I won’t be seeing her until the 15th though, which really is too bad but I’ll be in Ontario until then.